Myanmar's leader to miss UN debate on ethnic crisis

World

Wednesday 13 September 2017 - 6:08pm

File: Myanmar’s State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi addresses the 71st session of United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters in New York on September 21, 2016.
Photo: Jewel Samad / AFP

YANGON - Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has scrapped plans to attend the United Nations (UN) General Assembly later this month, her spokesman said on Wednesday, as the Nobel laureate faces intense global scrutiny over the Rohingya refugee crisis.

"The state counsellor won't attend the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly," said government spokesman Zaw Htay, using Suu Kyi's formal title.

The spokesman did not explain the decision but said the country's Vice President Henry Van Thio would attend the summit, which runs through next week.

The announcement comes after the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, accused Myanmar of waging a "systematic attack" on Rohingya civilians and warned that "ethnic cleansing" seemed to be under way.